Synthesis of Guidance on Agriculture-nutrition linkages

Anna Herforth, consultant to FAOAIARD conference

June 5, 2012

Purpose and audience

• Provide an updated and complete list of current agriculture-nutrition guidance and strategies from international development institutions

• Provide an analysis of the key messages– underscore key points of emerging consensus – expose differences

• Audiences: • International development community• Country-level policy-makers and program-planners

Methods

• Inclusion criteria– Bilateral, multilateral, or NGO publications– Institutional publications intended for public use (no

deliberative documents or unofficial working papers)– Almost all were published after 2008

• All documents were coded for themes (annex)– Minimum inclusion criterion for a theme: > 3 institutions

• Review process to date– Ag2Nut CoP (http://knowledge-gateway.org/ag2nut)– Authors of reviewed docs– FAO staff meeting

Overview of documents identified

• 44 publications were identified• 26 institutions have published guidance, a statement,

or explorations of the evidence• Categories (# institutions)

1. Guiding principles and operational guidance (10)2. Guidance from UN high-level bodies (2)3. Manuals (5)4. Statements and strategies (9)5. “Other” - academic reviews, a community conversation,

and a research program (6)

• 10 institutions• 16 publications

This synthesis draft includes only

guidance notes

Planning1. Incorporate explicit nutrition objectives 2. Assess the context to identify and build on existing efforts,

knowledge, and resources3. Do No Harm4. Measure impact through monitoring and evaluation

• Dietary diversity, stunting

5. Target the most vulnerable• smallholder farmers, women, and poor/food insecure HHs

6. Maximize impact of household income• Mainly through women

7. Increase equitable access to resources (e.g. land, water, credit)8. Leverage multisectoral coordination

• at least in the planning phase, and in the implementation phase where possible

Doing: Main activities

1. Diversify production and livelihoods 2. Increase production of nutrient-dense foods

vegetables, fruits, animal source foods, underutilized foods, legumes, and biofortified crops; specifics depend on context

3. Reduce post-harvest losses and improve processing4. Increase market access and opportunities5. Reduce seasonality of food insecurity…all the above approaches should do these three things :

• Empower women • Incorporate nutrition education• Manage natural resources

Supporting

1. Improve policy coherence supportive to nutrition• Reform of food price policies, subsidies, and trade policies• Pro-poor policies, e.g. social safety nets

2. Improve good governance for nutrition• National nutrition strategy and action plan

3. Build capacity in ministry staff at all levels, and increase nutrition staff

4. Communicate and continue to advocate for nutrition

Conclusions• First: Current guidance shows a high degree of alignment

between institutions– How can points of consensus be leveraged?

• A few gaps– Collaboration with the agriculture sector in making guidance

actionable• production/income/nutrition trade-offs and co-benefits

– Costing of recommended interventions – Incentives for context assessment and effective multisectoral

collaboration– Viability of agricultural extension (vis-a-vis nutrition education)– How to improve market access for smallholders– Market-oriented production of women’s crops

Next steps